All you need to know about the global plastic treaty

In 2022, United Nations member states adopted a mandate to negotiate an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution by 2024.

And as 2024 comes to a close, member states are coming together again this November to participate in the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC5). The world is watching with bated breath to receive the status report from those tasked with advancing the plastics treaty. 

Even as this happens, Kenya is emerging as a leader in the fight against plastic pollution and is among the first countries in East Africa to limit single-use plastics and sign the Clean Seas initiative to rid waterways of plastic waste.

The country banned plastic bottles, cups and cutlery in its national parks in 2020, a move that followed country-wide prohibition on plastic bags, and in what the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Regional Director for Africa Juliette Biao lauded as an important step in reducing marine litter. 

Last September, Kenya officially joined the High Ambition Coalition aimed at eliminating plastic pollution, which comprises 67 nations dedicated to establishing a robust international legally binding instrument based on a comprehensive and circular approach that mandates urgent actions and effective measures throughout the entire lifecycle of plastics.

The commitment comes at the right time when the government of Kenya through the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry has formulated a comprehensive legal framework for the sector, including the National Sustainable Waste Management Policy of 2021, the Sustainable Waste Management Act 2022 and Draft Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulation 2023.

The Kenya Association of Waste Recyclers Secretary-General Richard Kainika said he is optimistic that the principal beneficiaries of the EPR scheme will be the environment, waste service providers, and the downstream waste pickers, aggregators and waste processors. 

He noted that the government, in the long term, will also reap big through local manufacturing by reducing dependency on plastic imports.

“The decision also represents a significant development at a crucial juncture in the negotiations for a plastics treaty underscoring the government’s political goodwill towards an ambitious treaty,” he said.

However, Mr Kainika, who is also the director at Pure Planet Recyclers Limited, said the elephant in the room is making sure the available incentives are distributed sustainably in respect to the waste pickers.  

As the world gears towards the last treaty process, Greenpeace Africa Plastic Campaigner Gerald Mutwol termed the government’s move as significant and urged the country to endorse and sign the Bridge to Busan Declaration that calls for reduction of plastic production by at least 75 per cent by 2040. 

Based on the 2019 baseline, the world needs to cut plastic production by 2040 in order to maintain global temperatures below 1.5° C and safeguard people’s health, rights, communities, and the planet.

James Wakibia, an environmental activist, noted that besides the treaty, Kenya has a lot to do in the war against plastic pollution, saying the current waste management system is shambolic, and the country needs to put a lot more effort to fix it.

 “The treaty will not help address waste management unless existing laws and regulations are implemented effectively.”

He noted that if implemented well, the Sustainable Waste Management Act can play a role in ensuring less plastic and other kinds of waste are taken care of. “However, it will need goodwill from both the political actors and citizens complemented by enough public awareness,” he said. 

Estimates shows that Kenya generates between 3,000- 4,000 tonnes of waste per day, hence the need for innovative solutions. The country has invested heavily in both policies and law enforcement to win the fight against plastic pollution. The result of this investment is today boosting Kenya’s environmental stewardship in Africa and the world. 

Civil society organisations that focus on the plastic pollution have come up with a list of recommendations that the country needs to prioritise as the negotiations for the global plastics treaty continue, with the objective being to protect human health and biodiversity from adverse effects of plastic pollution based on a full life cycle approach.

Among the key areas they recommend is for the treaty to impose a Plastic Production Reduction regulation with a clear target to eliminate chemicals of concern in plastic products. They also recommend the development of a new dedicated financial mechanism and cross-cutting obligations on transparency, tracking, monitoring and labeling. 

Dorothy Atieno, programme officer at the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development, founded in 2012 with a mission to promote a toxic-free environment, said these areas are key to identifying chemicals used and tracing plastic products, and just transition for informal workers as mandated by resolution 5/14.

Dorothy is optimistic that the issue of a just transition is one of those articles that will make it to the final instrument, adding that waste pickers currently depend on many types of waste, including plastics, “and if parties will deliver a high ambition, then it means that plastic production will significantly reduce”.

“This reduction is great, and as we move to alternative systems and products, waste pickers have to be part of that movement. They have to be part of the teams that design better systems, develop policies, laws, and National Action Plans, and they have to be part of the implementation process,” she explained.

The United Nations Environment Assembly resolution, which started the process of negotiating a future plastics treaty, sets out an ambitious timeline, with the goal of finishing by the end of 2024. 

For the past two years, nations have been trying to craft a legally binding global treaty that will tackle plastic pollution. The fast-tracked negotiation process is due to end with this month’s meeting, which is taking place in Busan, South Korea, from November 25 to 1 December.

However, with the end of the negotiations nearing and a substantial amount of work still needing to be done to finalise the treaty before it can be ratified, critical questions are already emerging as lonely voices call for extension of the negotiating time.

Kenya has invested heavily in both policies and law enforcement to win the fight against plastic pollution, and this final treaty process is key to defining how the country will be able to implement its national targets to end plastic pollution.

Like many countries, Kenya has long struggled with plastic waste, which dots its Indian Ocean coast and often abounds in its lakes. 

At the previous four meetings, the INC’s task has been to pin down the elements a treaty could contain. These include possible measures to reduce plastic production; improve waste management; eliminate or minimise the most polluting and avoidable plastic products and most dangerous chemicals; design plastics for reuse; and finance clean-ups and a global transition away from plastic. 

Gisore Nyabuti, secretary-general of the Kenya National WastePickers Welfare Association, said the treaty should also focus on plastics that have the buyback system and the need for developing countries to invest in the right technology and waste systems for recycling.

He said there is a need for the issue of just transition to be fully implemented in the final treaty process, adding that for many years, waste pickers have borne the brunt of plastic pollution and thus their issues should be prioritised in the final process.

“In Kenya, just transition is not working. As the waste pickers group, we have tried to engage the government, the municipality, the National Environment Management Authority and the Plastic Producer Responsibility organisations (PROs) without success,” he said.

Mr Nyabuti accused the PROs of a plot to divide the waste pickers by forcing them to form community-based organisations yet they already registered in associations that highlight their issues. 

Setting targets, controls and timelines for minimising the production and consumption of virgin plastics will be a sticking point in the negotiations, but it is a core issue to create a solid agreement. 

This puts a potential plastics treaty on fragile footing, and large petrochemical producing countries and industries may object to a legally binding treaty with heavy emphasis on earlier steps in the plastic lifecycle. 

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